So it occurred to me over that last year or so that I know next to nothing about eisenhower. So I've been reading a book called Ike for the past few weeks. 800 pages, it starts with his childhood and details everything. But it it very interesting. So far I'm loving it. I'm only to the planning stages of D-Day, but I can't hardly put it down.

That was one dark and depressing read. I liked it very much, but damn I needed some serious sunshine after reading that one. I'd advise anyone with a desire to read it, to read it outside in the brilliant radiance of the sun.

I'm reading the latest issue of Virgina Quarterly Review which is all about Mexico's failing war on drugs this issue. Just some wonderful nonfiction about life in Juarez.

well i finished superfreakonomics and i was disappointed compared to the first one. not because of the global warming chapter, but it seems all in all that they just kinda mailed it in hoping they could cash in on the success of the original.

Recommendation from Hamas:

On Killing: The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society by Lt. Col Dave Grossman.

http://www.amazon.com/Killing-Psycho.../dp/0316330116

Planning on reading this over my holiday break.

I don't need to read any more or see any more to know that the drug war is the most inefficient, fraudulent war and biggest waste of resources this country has ever produced. And the sad thing is, it says we learned nothing about prohibition.

And that's precisely what the global warming chapter, which got shredded, said to me.

Absolutely. Though these pieces are focused on the war on drugs that Mexican President Felipe Calderon instituted in 2007; policies which caused the cartels to fight with unspeakable violence in competition for territory (and how America is affected by Mexico's failures regarding drugs).

That'd be an interesting angle.

Interesting, thanks for looking that up, i just cant figure out why Dispatches isnt mentioned as a major influence though...the 'slick' door gunner, the ass chewing from the colonel 'get with the team', those are just a few scenes directly lifted from it.

Oh well, sounds like another good book to check out.

Excellent, excellent book. I read it about 5 years ago after having it recommended to me by my mom, she got to meet Grossman at a law enforcement seminar & has a signed copy.

Every point of his seems true... but what if we didnt train our soldiers to kill first, think later? Pavlovian conditioning, operant conditioning... overcoming the aversion to pulling the trigger on another human is fundamental to being a good soldier.

Where he makes better points IMO, is when talking about the impact of video games & other media on kids... soldiers sometimes have to kill, but kids are often getting the same type of desensitization as soldiers.

Anyone read the Hunger Games series?

I was looking for follow ups after His Dark Materials and it kept popping up.

Just finished reading "End the Fed", by Ron Paul.

Before that, Liberty and Tyranny, Mark Levin
The Ascent of Money, by Niall Ferguson
Gusher of Lies by Robert Bryce
Green Hell, by Steven Milloy

There's only two out right now. Hunger Games was okay, not that great. It didn't inspire me to read Catch Fire (the second one). I think the Uglies series by Scott Westerfeld is superior if you're wanting to do YA dystopian. Westerfeld has a new series that is a steampunk alt-history of WWI. The first is called Leviathan, and it's out. I'm very, very excited to read it. Little Brother by Cory Doctorow is really good YA dystopic as is Rash by Pete Hautman.

I just got recommended the ole Hitchhiker's Guide. Might start that.

If you want to do Hitchhiker's Guide, and you want something of similar tone to Dark Materials, I'd check out the Ender's Series by Orson Scott Card. First is Ender's Game, then do Ender's Shadow.

Ender's Game is cool. HHGTTG was fun too. I haven't read Ender's Shadow but I plan on it. I just started "The Name of the Wind" by Patrick Rothfuss. It is starting to get very interesting. Anyone else read it?

Methland: the Death and Life of an American Small Town by Nick Reding. A damn fascinating account of rural and small-town America's devastating obsession with meth & a comprehensive look as to how meth became so popular and ubiquitous in this country.

I'm reading Confessions, by Rousseau. It's not damned fascinating so far. It's ok though.

Yep. It's an entertaining fantasy debut. I'm definitely going to pick up the next in the series.

Sounds interesting.

I had all those books I could read but I ended up picking up the Book Thief anyway. Gonna start tonight.

We played those guys in high school sports. Not that actual methheads though, because...well, they were doing meth.

I want to read that.

Its very good so far. And Iowa is all over it: Oelwein, Ottumwa, Waterloo.

Please keep us updated on Rousseau's sexual excursions.

WooWoo

Yeah, a week doesn't go by when I haven't read a story about some meth dealer in the Waterloo Courier.

Another book with some good insight on the small-town of the midwest is Stuck in the Middle. It's about globalization and it's impact in the midwest, NAFTA, factory shutdowns, education, etc. Very readable, I enjoyed it.

You'll love Methland, then, because all of those things are intimately connected with meth's rise.

Then it's on my Christmas reading list.

Along with A Christmas Carol. I've never actually read that.

I'm interested in your take on His Dark Materials series.

I've never read them. I don't read fantasy at all. The last fantasy I read was by assignment in 8th grade. Only rarely do I even watch a fantasy or sci-fi movie.

My understanding of them is that they're unapologetically anti-organized religion. My own feelings on that, as I'm sure you know, are to the contrary.

If I was going to read a fantasy series, I'd probably skip Pullman and start with Tolkien or Lewis. I do enjoy C.S. Lewis' religious works, especially The Great Divorce.

Well, that's precisely why I'd like to hear your thought on it. The story itself is pretty good without the backing of everything else (philosophy, religious implication, etc)

Heh. You are hot on the YA trends these days. Book Thief is awesome. Since you know YA Lit, you might or might not have heard of Chris Crutcher (wrote Whale Talk, the Sledding Hill, Staying Fat for Sarah Burns, Deadline, etc.. etc..If you haven't read him, check him out). Anyway, I got to spend last weekend hanging out with him at a conference, and I do mean hanging out. Friend of a friend, so we were out pretty late night at the bars. Great guy. Lots of fun.

Well, I've found that YA happen to deal with better premises and explore much more mature things than most adult fiction. Hence, my attraction.

You should have requested a place in his next book. ;)

Haha. Hilarious story about that. Some Nebraska fan got into correspodence with him. They placed a bet when WSU was playing Nebraska. The guy said that if Nebraska won, Crutcher had to put him in his next book. Needless to say, Nebraska destroyed WSU. Crutcher called the guy and said, "Alright, you won. Do you want to be a truck stop hooker or a one-legged tranvestite?"

ROFL

The guy actually ended up being the coach in Whale Talk.

ROFL

Solid. Makes me wanna read him just based on that.

He's a solid writer. Worked in abuse and neglect therapy in Oakland for years and saw some pretty heavy shit. Alot of those stories make it into his work (which is actually pretty funny, but can also be heart breaking). If you ever get a chance to hear him speak, do it. He's an amazing speaker and storyteller. He's also a fierce, fierce free speech advocate. His books tend to get banned a lot, so he does a lot of advocacy work on behalf of banned books.

not really high brow, but going through the dresden files again (jim butcher)--brilliant prose.

I've got a copy of that signed by the author but I haven't read it yet. Its probably next up on my docket.

i just started it. very good so far.

The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins

Read a bunch of those over the summer after a gaming buddy loaned me one. Fun stuff for sure.

I was going to read it but figured I'd just get his newest.

absolutely brilliant, and still relevant all these many years after its release. all of his stuff is good for the most part--I'm a big fan (though I am a heathen biology dude, so it's to be expected).

you have to read this--while his newest is great, the whole premise of all of his works (sans 'the god delusion') was presented in the selfish gene. it's hard to get a handle on some of the concepts if you skip the selfish gene, IMHO

Have you read his latest?

If so, is reading SG worth it if I'm reading The Greatest Show on Earth?


EDIT: Answered above.

Guess my next question would be: You wouldn't recommend reading GSOE before SG to get a kind of "overview". I imagine GSOE to be a briefer SG.

I haven't read GSOE yet--it's during the semester, so reading time is at a minimum. from what I've read (and heard from a friend who has read it), it's dawkins' magnum opus--it's basically his life's work put into book form--I'd say what you said, but opposite... SG lays the framework that GSOE ultimately is built upon.

Do guys have a bookstand? I just bought a great one from Barnes and Noble tonight. It's from Book Hug, only $12. It's worked for every single book I've put in.

I've never had need for a bookstand.

It's nice. I wish I had it years ago.

I read Siddhartha last week. That was a good book.

Unity of all things. I liked that. I liked Siddhartha's subtle transformations throughout his life.

Reading Deer Hunting with Jesus. It's sort of a gonzo version of What's the Matter with Kansas. The guy's a little condescending and over the top in turning his characters into caricatures, but he's got a pretty enjoyable point of view.

Forces of Fortune: The Rise of the New Muslim Middle Class and What It Will Mean for Our World - Vali Nasr

I'm on somewhat of a Philip K Dick streak off and on over the past 6 months or so. Finally getting around to A Scanner Darkly. Kind of one of those authors I always knew about but for some reason just now started reading. Great stuff.

A lot of stuff for classes right now.

Read "Defender of the Faith" for discussion in class today. It's always interesting to see how the students take that one.

Hoping our school library gets this one in soon. Like Westerfeld's YA stuff, and i dig steampunk:

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NewPhin how is your hernia doing and did you go see a doctor?

Getting around to the latest issues of Fourth Genre and Ninth Letter.

Im reading "The Power of Now" by Eckhart Tolle.

I didn't got to the doctor. Everything seems to be fine, as I've worked out twice this week without feeling any weakness there. Very strange.

Finished the latest Wheel of Time book a couple weeks ago, and it was very good imo.

Yes, Robert Jodan passed away, and the series will be finished by auther Brandon Sanderson, who was chosen by Jordan's widow who was also he editor.

Jordan left tons of notes, and also wrote many of the important scenes out himself, such as the ending, and some of the framework.

I could hardly tell it was written by someone else if I didn't know already. There were some differneces, but if anything they were for the better. Ther ewas a little less of the granular level of description, and oddly to say, there is a little more of people actually talking to each other, and yes, some of the women weren't such feral bitches that were a second from castrating any man that looked wrong at them.

The book is actually the first installelment of the last book, which was broken into three parts because it was so huge that if wouldn't have fit as one alone. The Gathering Storm is the title of this one, and it is just as long as any of the previous books. The next one is already 80% done, and should be out before too long..as in within the next year.

Sanderson's books include a trilogy called Mistborn, which I thing are pretty damn good so far too. They have a really cool magic system call allomancy, that he makes really interesting.


edit:
Oops, repost, but I'm glad I didn't see it before I posted it...Keg had some different takes on it than I did.

The Machine -- A Hot Team, a Legendary Season, and a Heart-stopping World Series: The Story of the 1975 Cincinnati Reds by Joe Posnanski

I saw some of the differences too, for Mat moreso than the women, but Nyneave was too I guess...but I think that was partly by design from Jordan. Mat felt a lot different to me, he seemed goofy, if that makes sense, but he is still one of my favorites and as long as he kicks some ass over the next couple books I'll be ok with him acting a little differnetly.

Really those two characters were the only ones that felt different, and the rest seems to be the same, without some of the super in depth descriptions.

Yeah, mat's section in the book was a bit odd. A lot of people aren't happy about it.

I can't find Reaper's post on the best YA books, but I remember Book Thief being on there at number 3, IIRC. Perks of Being a Wallflower ranked #1.

Well, I've read both and can say without a doubt, that The Book Thief is the best YA book I've ever read (which isn't many :p). It also happens to be the best book I've read. Powerful stuff.

I'd recommend it to anyone and everyone.

That's me, not Reaper. Reaper is way too high brow and snooty for that sort of stuff. ;) But yes, the Book Thief is amazing. Just a really great book that transcends the whole YA label.

Did you like Charlie from Perks? It's a great book to pair up with Catcher in the Rye. Charlie is like a modern day Holden.

I get the comparison but I don't necessarily agree with it. I can't put my finger on why. Perhaps because the stories are pretty different.

Oh, and I loved Charlie. That said, and I may sound stupid in this, but I didn't really see the whole abuse/molesting thing at all. I identified with him in many ways until that part. Caught me off guard.

What thread did you put your top 5 in?

I recently read Gang Leader for a day, about the sociologist living with a gang in the Chicago projects. Good book that depicts an existence that most of us can't even fathom.

Also started, but didn't finish, a collection of short stories by China Mieville. I'll probably pick it up again. I just ran out of steam, plus I picked up:

Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld. Almost finished it. Good stuff.

Also reading Macbeth for the 10,000th time with my students. Read two other books with some book clubs with the kids in the meantime. 145th Street by Walter Dean Myers and a really bad Orca selection (high interest, low difficulty reads) called Zee's Way. Bad book, but the book club reading it probalby haven't actually read and finished a book in their lives, so I was pretty happy that they engaged with it.

I think it was in the Twilight thread in the media center.... maybe. If you're into YA, I can PM you my goodreads account name. I've got a whole YA bookshelf rated and reviewed of stuff. I haven't kept up with it very well in recent years, but there's a lot of stuff on there.

I know we've covered the whole YA label deal.

That said, I am saddened that books like these are often ignored in favor of the "classics" in literature classes in both high school and college. For me, and I bet many students, the classics bored while the more contemporary, shall we say, stimulated. I would have read a lot more had books like these been assigned. Rather than, say, Grapes of Wrath.

For posterity:


Now that I look at this, have you read Loose Girl, NewPhin?

I saw it at Target and was immediately intrigued even though I'm not in the target audience by a long shot. It fits in your memoir slot.

I haven't read loose girl. By the way, if you're working with at risk, low-literacy kids. Check out the Bluford Books from Townsend Press. You can buy them for $1 a piece from them, and they're absolute gems for that audience. Also look into the Orca Series. Finally there is a new one called Hip Books, but I haven't actually read any of them yet. They look promising. They're not great literature, but they are high interest and they will hook some kids on reading who have never read an actual book.

Carl Sandburg's series on Lincoln, for the umpteenth time. Something invariably comforting when you know the outcome but are repeatedly impressed with the resolve, wisdom and patience to deal with all impediments to the resolution of challenges that must be confronted to resolve conflict and restore order. And yes, to kill and kill some more if that is what it takes to do so.

Just finished Huxley's Brave New World, pretty amazing that it was written nearly 80 years ago.

Mao: The Unknown Story by Jung Chang and Jon Halliday

Pretty amazing book. The authors make some pretty inflammatory claims that, if true, would brand Mao Zedong a greater, more bloodthirsty sociopath that Hitler or Stalin.

http://aede.osu.edu/programs/anderso...ZZ_%5B1%5D.jpg

From the Amazon.com Review...

In the epilogue to her biography of Mao Tse-tung, Jung Chang and her husband and cowriter Jon Halliday lament that, "Today, Mao's portrait and his corpse still dominate Tiananmen Square in the heart of the Chinese capital." For Chang, author of Wild Swans, this fact is an affront, not just to history, but to decency. Mao: The Unknown Story does not contain a formal dedication, but it is clear that Chang is writing to honor the millions of Chinese who fell victim to Mao's drive for absolute power in his 50-plus-year struggle to dominate China and the 20th-century political landscape. From the outset, Chang and Halliday are determined to shatter the "myth" of Mao, and they succeed with the force, not just of moral outrage, but of facts. The result is a book, more indictment than portrait, that paints Mao as a brutal totalitarian, a thug, who unleashed Stalin-like purges of millions with relish and without compunction, all for his personal gain. Through the authors' unrelenting lens even his would-be heroism as the leader of the Long March and father of modern China is exposed as reckless opportunism, subjecting his charges to months of unnecessary hardship in order to maintain the upper hand over his rival, Chang Kuo-tao, an experienced military commander.

Using exhaustive research in archives all over the world, Chang and Halliday recast Mao's ascent to power and subsequent grip on China in the context of global events. Sino-Soviet relations, the strengths and weakness of Chiang Kai-shek, the Japanese invasion of China, World War II, the Korean War, the disastrous Great Leap Forward, the vicious Cultural Revolution, the Vietnam War, Nixon's visit, and the constant, unending purges all, understandably, provide the backdrop for Mao's unscrupulous but invincible political maneuverings and betrayals. No one escaped unharmed. Rivals, families, peasants, city dwellers, soldiers, and lifelong allies such as Chou En-lai were all sacrificed to Mao's ambition and paranoia. Appropriately, the authors' consciences are appalled. Their biggest fear is that Mao will escape the global condemnation and infamy he deserves. Their astonishing book will go a long way to ensure that the pendulum of history will adjust itself accordingly. --Silvana Tropea

Breakdown of a BIG Book: 5 Things You'll Learn from Mao: The Unknown Story

1. Mao became a Communist at the age of 27 for purely pragmatic reasons: a job and income from the Russians.

2. Far from organizing the Long March in 1934, Mao was nearly left behind by his colleagues who could not stand him and had tried to oust him several times. The aim of the March was to link up with Russia to get arms. The Reds survived the March because Chiang Kai-shek let them, in a secret horse-trade for his son and heir, whom Stalin was holding hostage in Russia.

3. Mao grew opium on a large scale.

4. After he conquered China, Mao's over-riding goal was to become a superpower and dominate the world: "Control the Earth," as he put it.

5. Mao caused the greatest famine in history by exporting food to Russia to buy nuclear and arms industries: 38 million people were starved and slave-driven to death in 1958-61. Mao knew exactly what was happening, saying: "half of China may well have to die."

Finished The World Is Flat and just started The China Study.

I'm reading a book that is likely far stranger than anything anyone else on this forum would want to read (with the exception of Hamas). It is called The Post-Human Dada Guide: Tzara and Lenin Play Chess by Andrei Codrescu. Its an instructional text about how to live a life in spirit with Dada in what Codrescu dubs the "post-human age," where technology and availability of information is seemingly infinite. The text is set up against the backdrop of an imagined game of chess played between Tristan Tsara (perhaps THE founder of Dada) and Vladdy Lenin, setting up an argument that the 20th century was in large part an intellectual contest between Dada and Communism.

The book is part historical text, part scholarly criticism, part funny essay and altogether strange and kind of brilliant.

Codrescu lives in Arkansas, now. Exquisite Corpse (and the Oxford American) is housed in my hometown of Conway.

His move away from Louisiana caused me to immediately take off LSU from my list of graduate programs to apply to.

I think he still spends a lot of time in NO, but he evidently has a pretty sweet little place on the Buffalo.